The Fifties – fearful and fabulous

Wednesday’s Granada programme The Fifties is a survey of the past 10 years. Here, Lord Tenby, who as Major Gwilym Lloyd-George, was Minister of Food (1951-54) and Home Secretary (1954-57), gives his impressions of the decade

 

TEN years: a seventh of man’s life span; a moment in history. Some decades leave no mark on history; others seem crammed with momentous events.

In the decade we have just lived through — the Fabulous Fifties some people are calling it — we in Britain lost a King; gained a Queen; fought in Korea; made the H-bomb; saw the cult of the Teddy Boy; did away with wartime rationing; climbed Everest in the person of Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tensing.

These were only a few of the things that happened to us during the 50’s.

When big events occur, we do not always appreciate their wider effects. They are driven from our thoughts by the next sensation. But in retrospect…

In 1951, we were in the middle of the Korean war. Who did not feel proud at the glorious stand of the Gloucester Regiment against great odds? Glorious in its display of British courage; inglorious that, a mere six years after the greatest war in history, men were still having to die to uphold the freedom we believe in.

On May 2, 1952, the first Comet airliner left London for Johannesburg, beginning the first jet passenger service. Then came the Comet disasters. It was a grievous blow to a brilliant aircraft, but out of those disasters came knowledge that has enabled others to build high-flying jets with complete safety. This is one of Britain’s important contributions to world technical knowledge. And it is a pleasure to recall that this last year of the decade has seen a revival of the Comet’s fortunes.

In that same year, 1952, Britain exploded her first atomic weapon. And the 50’s saw us progress — if that is the right word — from atomic bombs to hydrogen bombs.

This ominous mushroom cloud has dominated our lives more than anything else in the decade. We are all aware of its frightfulness, and in its very horror lies our salvation — while sanity prevails. Its mere possession, let alone its use, is an awesome responsibility.

Perhaps the hydrogen bomb is the most important thing that has happened in the 50’s. Because it is too dangerous to be trifled with, there has emerged the beginning of some sort of closer contact between the leaders of East and West. I would say that the nuclear fear has aroused the common man to serious contemplation of the issues of peace and war more than anything else has ever done.

Some people say that Britain is no longer a great Power, that the 50’s saw our decline. It is true that we are no longer the military arbiters of peace. In that sense, yes, perhaps we are no longer a great Power. But history may judge that, during the 50’s, Great Britain became greater by her influence on world affairs.

By exporting the British way of life, encouraging the development of new nations (most of whom elect to remain within the Commonwealth), by taking the initiative in breaking the ice of cold war.

Mr Macmillan’s personal visit to Moscow, which might easily have ended in fiasco, should never be forgotten as the beginning of a new trend in international affairs — the personal approach between heads of State.

June, 1953, and again the Royal Family was close to the nation. The Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II brought the monarchy even closer to the people — thanks to the TV cameras. There was a sense of participation in this formerly exclusive ceremony. Later in 1953, it was my pleasure as Minister of Food to announce that sugar rationing was over. Butter and cheese came off the ration in May, 1954, and food rationing ended officially on July 3.

At the end of that month, amid some cries of woe, the Act setting up the Independent Television Authority was passed. And I suppose that set up one of the most significant trends of the decade.

Competition and controversy in television improved the service. I think that is recognised as a general fact, whatever detailed arguments and criticisms may be made for or against either Channel.

The development of Independent Television speeded the growth of the viewing audience — the trend towards a stay-at-home Britain.

The arguments are endless on this subject. I think television should be used with the same care you use when selecting a book in a library.

Does it have any effect on crime? Some people like to blame juvenile crime — which has increased during the 50’s — largely on films and television.

While it is easy to exaggerate the effect of certain TV programmes on viewers, it is important that the quality of programmes should be maintained at a high level. I had experience when Home Secretary of horror comics which, had we not prohibited their publication and importation, might have become a real menace.

When I was a boy, a policeman thought it part of his duty to cuff a boy he saw doing something naughty and technically against the law — and so did his father.

Psychiatry and the modern approach to juvenile crime is undoubtedly of great value, but I think the trend has been too much to search for obscure causes for delinquency when quick action at the first sign of waywardness would have done more good.

Violence has been a trend of the past ten years. We have seen the emergence of the Teddy Boys.

I have not the slightest objection to any chap wearing what he pleases. I think it is good for a youth to take pride in his appearance. But it is a pity that hooliganism has become associated with the Teddy Boy style: otherwise this cult might have been nothing more than a picturesque development and a harmless expression of youthful vanity.

This decade began with the death of an “angry old man” — George Bernard Shaw who never tired of telling us how to put things right. And very entertainingly he did it, too.

I have less sympathy with that product of the 50’s — the angry young man. I suppose some “angry young man ” at present in his cradle will one day tell us what a mess we made of the 50’s — just as the current crop complain about what we did 20 or 30 years ago.

I can never understand what they are angry about.

Did we become more selfish during the 50’s? Some say the I’m-all-right-Jack attitude has been another trend of the decade. I do not agree. There have always been selfish people, and always will be.

It happens that this rather graphic phrase is often applied to people who have been merely thoughtless rather than cynically indifferent to the plight of others. As a nation we are generally willing to help others.

I can give an example from my experience when Home Secretary. After the Hungarian uprising in 1956 we agreed to accept 2,500 refugees. Some days later I was informed that refugees were pouring into Austria in uncontrollable numbers. I authorised the immediate admittance of another 11,000. I do not recall anybody protesting.

Roaring Twenties, Fabulous Fifties — decades attract their own adjectives. I think Fearful Fifties is equally descriptive: they have certainly been uneasy, to say the least.

But I am full of hope. If the wealthy nations of the world display an unselfish attitude towards the have-nots — the teeming, undeveloped lands of the East — I believe the uneasy peace of the Fifties may well be made enduring.

I should like to think that we are entering the Sane Sixties.